Bloomberry on a roll in 2022, posted P5.1B in profit

Billionaire Enrique Razon Jr.’s Bloomberry Resorts Corp. was on a roll in 2022 after a reversal of fortunes pushed up full year profit to P5.1 billion, erasing losses from the previous year.

The full recovery of the domestic-focused mass gaming and slot machine segments at Solaire Resort & Casino to their prepandemic level and the growth of VIP volumes pushed up total gaming revenues to P50.1 billion, up 81 percent from 2021.

Total gaming revenue ended the year at 84 percent of the prepandemic level while profit returned to just over half of the company’s 2019 net income.

Bloomberry chair and CEO Enrique Razon Jr. said they expect to sustain the pace of recovery in 2023.

“2022 was a positive year of recovery for Bloomberry as Solaire benefited from a strong rebound in local demand across all business segments,” Razon said in a statement.

“These developments are encouraging as we mark Solaire’s 10th year of operations this March. We look forward to delivering even better results in 2023 and to reaching more milestones in the years to come,” he added.

Razon lauded the company’s return to profitability amid challenges in the gaming and tourism sector—among the laggards in 2022 given the closure of key international markets such as China.

Last month, the Chinese government started to reopen outbound travel for groups and package tours.

Bloomberry said on Thursday non-gaming revenue doubled to P6.7 billion for 2022 driven by hotel, food, beverage and retail segments.

VIP, mass table and electronic gaming machine gross gaming revenues reached 16.5 billion, P16.8 billion, and P16.9 billion in 2022. These translated to a growth of 144 percent, 48 percent, and 77 percent from 2021.

“All segments benefited from strong domestic demand which was supplemented by improved international visitation in the second half of the year,” Bloomberry said.

The company also owns the Jeju Sun Hotel & Casino in South Korea, which reopened with limited gaming capacity last October.

The gaming segment posted a loss of P8.5 million during the last quarter of 2022 while non-gaming revenues for the year surged from P1.8 million to P48.7 million.

“While we celebrate our success in 2022, we keep our eyes on the future as we ramp-up construction activity at Solaire Resort North in Quezon City. We are excited to launch this new offering by the first quarter of 2024,” Razon said on Thursday.

Solaire North, which rising on a 1.5-hectare property in Ayala Land’s Vertis project, will be the company’s second integrated casino project in the country.

Meanwhile, its planned investment in the Cebu and Clark casino projects of Davao-based tycoon Dennis A. Uy has not made any progress nine months since the term sheet was signed in May 6, 2022.

The projects, owned by Uy’s PH Resorts Group Holdings, were still subject to closing conditions, including the completion of due diligence and various corporate approvals, Bloomberry said in its 2022 annual report.

Its plan to build a gaming and golf course resort in the Paniman area in Ternate, Cavite is moving forward after Bloomberry acquired about 57 percent of roughly 2.8 million square meters from the group of companies led by listed Boulevard Holdings Inc.

“The development of the Paniman Project is expected to commence after Solaire Resort North in Vertis North, Quezon City has started its commercial operations,” Bloomberry said in the report.